I'm a huge fan of classic novels. In the past few years, I've been working my way through Jane Austen's six novels. I had to re-read Sense and Sensibility, because when I first read it in high school I didn't really understand it. A decade and a half of living (and a few seasons of Downton Abbey) has helped to clear up the confusion about British courtship customs of the 19th century. I preferred Mansfield Park, though, the tale of overlooked cousin Fanny Brice, to the adventures of Marianne and Eleanor Dashwood.
More recently, I picked up a copy of Agnes Grey from my local library. This book was written by Anne Bronte, younger sister of Charlotte and Emily. I enjoyed a read through of Wuthering Heights not long ago, and the film adaptation from 2011, and a copy of Jane Eyre has been sitting on my bookshelf for the past several years. The Bronte sisters had much in common with Jane Austen, having never married, the poor daughters of ministers who began writing about the romance they didn't get to experience, before dying at relatively young ages.
Although I feel like Jane Austen was a bit obsessed with marrying off her characters to appropriate men, and the Bronte sisters didn't seem to share her optimism. Their heroines marry brutes, and run wild on the moors (or maybe that was just Cathy...I should really read Jane Eyre). Agnes Grey follows a different path, recounting the tales of a cash-strapped governess and the families who mistreat her while she attempts to educate their children.
Agnes is an interesting main character, chafing under her family's insistence that she is still a baby and deciding to go out on her own to make a living, then struggling to rein in unruly students and miserable host families. It reminds me of a Victorian Nanny Diaries in the way it exposes the mistreatment of the elite towards their domestic help. At the time it was published, one book reviewer thought the author must have bribed a governess in order to nail the accurate portrayal of the torments of her life. In fact, the book is based on the experiences of Anne Bronte herself, and the families she lived with in the role of governess. I'm also surprised at how much still feels true about the characters of this book, from their religious views to the differing opinions about child-rearing.
If you are a fan of the Bronte sisters or want to read more about English society in the mid-1800's, pick up a copy of Agnes Grey. The Penguin Classics edition contains a very informative introduction exploring the lives of the Brontes and women like them, as well as the mark their books made on the publishing industry. Agnes' story will make you think twice about how you treat those who serve you, from the teenagers at McDonald's to the men and women educating your children.
